Tabletop gaming brings the fun

I was never really keen on board games as a kid. It wasn’t as though I disliked them or anything. I actually thought they were fairly fun. The problem was that I really didn’t have many people to play them with. My brother was kind of young for anything I wanted to play, and my sister had a habit of punching me and storming off anytime I started winning in a game. So yes, even though I had some games, and had some fun trying to play them by myself… for the most part, they sat on the shelf getting dusty.

Fast forward to a few years ago, when my friends and I started taking up some of the new crop of games and giving them a try. These include card games like Munchkin, a comedic game where you try to kill monsters and either help or hinder your other players on your way to winning, or Gloom, where you must weave a tale of woe for your in-game family. We’ve also tried out some new proper board games like Settlers of Catan and the board game version of Munchkin, Munchkin Quest.

Well, March 30 has been designated “Tabletop Day” and is being promoted by web and television actors (and board game enthusiasts) Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton as an opportunity for people to get together and share their love of card games, board games, or even tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons.

Wheaton runs a YouTube series entitled “Tabletop” hosted on Day’s channel, where he and some of his friends try out a variety of these games and see how they like them. Seeing its popularity, they decided to try and encourage people to set up events in their local area, either for their own friends or just enthusiasts in general.

They even set up a website, tabletopday.com, for people to register their events and share their love of games. I haven’t seen anything on there for this area, granted, but given the meeting areas and people around here who enjoy even classic card and board games, it seems like a great excuse to get some stuff going with friends or family members. Maybe some kids would enjoy the chance to learn some new games from their parents or grandparents, or vice versa.

As for me, I’ve got a few board games sitting in my closet begging to get played, and I think this will be a great excuse to dig them out and give them a spin…